Multi-site on Windows - using IIS

Prerequisites

This guide assumes you have the following installed and running:

• Microsoft's Internet Information Services web server 6 or 7
• PhP 5.2 or higher with PDO dlls enabled.
• The IIS FastCGI Module (IIS6 version here - in IIS7 it's an integrated module that needs to be enabled).
• MySQL
• If you want clean urls, you'll also need the URL Rewrite module (IIS7) or a third-party url-rewrite module set up at some point, though you can do this afterward.

Process

1. Install a site. This will be the parent site, providing the code-base for all the child sites.

   IIS7: be sure your parent site has a web.config file (see this for more info). Child sites will use the settings in the parent site's web.config file. To override these settings, put a web.config file with just the settings you want to override in the child site's folder (eg sites/site2.com/).

2. Create child site folders. Decide how you want people to navigate to your sub-site. In the parent site's /sites/ folder, create sub-folders for each new site you wish to install.

• Example 1: parentsite.com/subsite/ - in parent /sites/ folder, create /sites/parentsite.com.subsite
• Example 2: subsite.parentsite.com - in parent /sites/ folder, create /sites/subsite.parentsite.com
• Example 3: subsite.com - in parent /sites/ folder, create /sites/subsite.com

IIS7 - Start the IIS Manager.

• Example 1: parentsite.com/subsite/ - Right-click on parentsite.com | Add virtual directory. Alias: [new site name, eg subsite]. Physical path: [parent site's physical path]. Click OK.
• Example 2: subsite.parentsite.com - Right-click on Sites | Add web site. Site name: [new site name, eg site2]. Click to select the application pool, and select the parent site. Physical path: enter the parent site's physical path. Host name: [new site url, eg site2.localhost]. Click OK.
• Example 3: subsite.com - add a web site as example 2, calling the host name subsite.com.

$databases['default']['default'] = array(
  'driver' => 'mysql',
  'database' => 'databasename',
  'username' => 'username',
  'password' => 'password',
  'host' => 'localhost',
);